Locals heading to pro women's hoop ranks

A couple of former Midstate girls basketball standouts heard their names called during Monday’s WNBA Draft, as Northeast’s Kamiko Williams was selected by the New York Liberty with the third pick of the second round and Wilson Central’s Jasmine Hassell was selected six picks later by the Indiana Fever.

Williams, a 5-11 guard, had her best collegiate season in her final year at Tennessee – averaging 7.4 points and 4.2 rebounds and shooting 50.5 percent from the floor along with 88 assists and a team-leading 57 steals as the Lady Vols advanced to the Elite Eight under first-year coach Holly Warlick.

Hassell, a 6-2 forward, led Georgia with 12.7 points and 6.2 rebounds per game and was 14th nationally with a field goal percentage of 53.1. She was named first-team all-Southeastern Conference in a vote of the league’s coaches and second-team all-SEC by the Associated Press. Georgia also advanced to the Elite Eight.

Williams and Hassell are the first Midstate players to be chosen in the WNBA Draft since former Brentwood Academy standout Victoria Dunlap was selected out of Kentucky by the Washington Mystics with the 11th overall pick in 2011. In 2010, Mt. Juliet’s Alysha Clark from Middle Tennessee State was selected by San Antonio with the fifth pick of the second round.

Maurice Patton primarily covers high school
sports for The Tennessean and has done so for the past five years, following
previous beat assignments that have included the University of Tennessee,
Middle Tennessee State, Tennessee State, Vanderbilt and the Nashville Sounds.<br />
<br />
A Franklin native and an MTSU graduate, Maurice has been at The Tennessean
since 1990, after prior stops at The (Franklin) Review Appeal and the
(Murfreesboro) Daily News Journal.&nbsp;